Testing Of Disabled Stirs Debate

Thousands Of The Diverse Group Of Florida Children Will Take The Fcat.

January 12, 2004|By Leslie Postal, Sentinel Staff Writer

Under pressure from the state and federal government, thousands of Florida students with disabilities will take the FCAT for the first time this year or next -- and many will fail.

Some parents and teachers fear making these students tackle Florida's high-stakes standardized tests. In the past, more than half of the disabled students who took the tests scored well below grade level.

"To say all these children should be able to pass the FCAT is a pipe dream," said Howard Van Deest, whose grandson has a learning disability and who serves on the board of the Learning Disability Association of Central Florida.

Many have severe disabilities and require specialized instruction, he said. "We've created a box that says: One size fits all."

But federal and state officials say inclusion in state testing programs will improve education for disabled students, who haven't always been offered high-quality classes.

Some "special-education" advocates agree, arguing schools will pay attention to those students only if they "count" in how schools are judged.

To count in Florida, students must take the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, a series of exams in reading, math, writing and science. About 1.6 million children in grades three to 10 take the exams.

Florida uses FCAT scores to grade public schools and to help make promotion and graduation decisions. The federal government uses them to judge whether schools are making progress under the No Child Left Behind education act.

Last year, more than 36,000 students with disabilities skipped the FCAT, but the Florida Department of Education wants that number cut by more than half.

Federal officials argue that the increased use of high-stakes tests to grade schools has led to a marked increase in special-education enrollment -- where poor students' scores won't be counted against the school.

The Orlando Sentinel reported in 2002 that Florida schools had moved more children into disabled classes as the state required that FCAT scores be used to grade schools.

That "unintended negative consequence" should be curbed by the new requirements to test and report scores of disabled students, according to U.S. Department of Education.

Federal regulations issued last month say only the small number of students with the "most significant cognitive disabilities" can skip state tests.

One percent of all students, or about 9 percent of disabled students, can take alternative tests and have those results counted toward their schools' progress.

In Florida, 1.9 percent of all students, or more than 11 percent of disabled students, skipped the FCAT last year and took an alternative test, state figures show.

Jim Warford, Florida's chancellor for kindergarten-to-12th-grade education, announced recently that more students need to take the FCAT to meet the federal law.

Warford wants the percentage taking an alternative test to shrink to less than 5 percent, or the number skipping the FCAT to drop from more than 36,000 to 13,000 or fewer.

Students with disabilities make up a large and diverse group, with more than 380,000 students in Florida meeting that classification.

More than half have normal intelligence, but learning disabilities, speech or language impairments or emotional problems have hampered academic success.

It is those students -- not those with profound mental retardation, for example -- that state and federal officials want to test.

The National Center for Learning Disabilities supports that effort.

The "vast majority" of learning-disabled students "have what it takes to be part of this assessment system, if they receive the appropriate instruction and support. And that's a big if," said James Wendorf, the center's executive director.

In the past, however, disabled students who took the FCAT scored significantly worse than nondisabled classmates.

In 2003, for example, 16 percent of nondisabled third-graders failed the FCAT reading exam, compared with 52 percent of those with disabilities.

Those high failure rates have helped make testing, and its effect on students with disabilities, a contentious issue in Florida recently. A push for even more testing likely will increase the controversy.

The push comes from the controversial No Child Left Behind act.

Pushed by President Bush, the act aims to improve education by using test scores to judge schools. Its goal is that all students take tests and become "proficient" in reading and math by 2013.

"By enabling all students to participate in assessments, school officials, parents and policy makers can all get a better idea of what needs to be improved," said Jim Bradshaw, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education.

Last year, many schools that did well overall on standardized tests, even some that made A's on Florida's report card, didn't meet federal standards because disabled students tested poorly.